A piece of furniture that is not level can be very annoying. The moment that there is any weight on one side of the furniture, such as a table, the other side moves up and vise versa. This makes for an uncomfortable platform to work on or eat from. The consuming public is well aware of the difficulty in sitting at a table that wobbles. This is especially noticeable at restaurants where tables receive a high level of use. The wobbling table may also be due to uneven floors, table age, shrinkage of wood, bending of metal, and so forth.
The legs or pedestals of many tables are provided with glides which are typically mounted by screw threads to enable the glides to be vertically adjusted for stable support of the table on floor surfaces which are not perfectly level. The difficulty with conventional table glides is that it is a time consuming process to properly adjust them. In a busy restaurant setting, time is simply not available to make such adjustments each time a table is moved. Such adjustments would likely require that the table be tipped up or turned down on its side for access to the glide with a tool if necessary. Accordingly, such adjustments may be an unacceptable disruption in any event. Finally, even if the table glides are properly adjusted once, readjustment would be necessary each time the table is moved to accommodate combining tables or different table arrangements.
Even on level surfaces, adjustment may be necessary when combining tables to level them relative to one another. When two tables are moved together, they not only need to be stabilized at that new position, but also leveled with one another to eliminate a ledge at the joint since it may be necessary for a patron to be seated at the junction where two tables meet.
In an effort to avoid wobbly tables, restaurants have been known to use cardboard matches or plain wood wedges below selected table glides for leveling and stabilizing wobbly tables. The matchbooks are somewhat compressible and aesthetically detract from what otherwise may be a very elegant restaurant atmosphere. The common wood wedge provides vertical support, but no lateral support. Accordingly, if the table is bumped or moved slightly, it can be moved off of either of these supports. Furthermore, it is difficult to insert a common wedge under the glides of a table pedestal because the precise position of the table glide cannot be seen unless the waiter gets down on hands and knees with his eyes near the floor.
For whatever the reason, a table that wobbles is not only a nuisance but can adversely affect the business owner. For instance, if the table is found at a restaurant, the restaurant could lose customers who are tired of having their drinks spilled. It is not uncommon to find a restaurant customer placing a match book or napkins beneath one of the table legs to be used as a wedge. Obviously, this fix is unsanitary and most unreliable, for the moment the table moves the wedge can be displaced and the table will need to be releveled. Astute customers will have nothing to do with touching the floor of a busy restaurant; and even if a restaurant helper assists, the action is most distracting and the customer is left to wonder if the restaurant helper washed their hands after they worked on the floor.
Prior art levelers for tables typically include a simple metal foot with extending bolts that can be inserted into the bottom of each leg to an adjustable depth. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,175,795 and 3,868,079 disclose an adjustable foot bolt that is placed through the bottom of a table or appliance and set at an adjustable level wherein a locknut is then used to secure the foot bolt in position. Unfortunately, this type of adjustment requires working beneath the base of the table and typically requires the use of a wrench for turning of the foot bolt.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,979 discloses a telescoping leveler that can be used with furniture. The device has a cylindrical intermediate member threaded on both an outside surface and an inside surface, allowing extension of the conventional foot bolt leveler. This device would require adjustment by grasping the foot pad that engages the floor.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,198,238 discloses a leg support device that allows adjustment of the leg by movement of an operation knob which disengages threads, allowing the adjustment screw to be moved upward or downward and locked in position by release of the operation knob. Such a device can be activated inadvertently thereby causing a table to become unbalanced.
What is lacking in the art is a furniture adjustment device that can be operated without having to work beneath the furniture base.